


We'll Never Know

by CatBooks (CatsAndBooks)



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bittersweet Ending, I'm Sorry, M/M, Sad, there's some fluff I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 15:04:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8166151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatsAndBooks/pseuds/CatBooks
Summary: They were always going to meet each other, no matter what universe it was in.A series of connected soulmate AU's centered around Slaine and Inaho.





	1. Our Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a soulmate AU in which when you and your soulmate share your first kiss, the other's last words to you appear on your arm.

Slaine shouldn’t have fallen in love with Inaho before kissing him. It was stupid. Debatably, the stupidest thing he’d ever done. But it’s not like he planned on it. It wasn’t like he just woke up one morning and decided that he would fall in love with Inaho. It’s not even like he woke up one morning and was suddenly in love with him. 

It had happened too gradually, too slowly. Slaine didn’t even realize what was happening until it was too late. He had learned all of Inaho’s mannerisms, knew what Inaho liked and what he didn’t like, and he could tell when Inaho was mad or sad or happy.

After all, who would fall in love with someone like Inaho Kaizuka? He was emotionless, obsessed with his tablet, didn’t care about what he said to who, constantly disregarding orders, always thought he was right, only cared about logic, didn’t do anything for fun, insensitive…

The list would go on and on, but somewhere it would always stop being a list of why he shouldn’t love Inaho and turn into a list of why he does. The reasons were indistinguishable, all the ways he loved Inaho.

By all accounts, it was a normal day. They were sitting across from each other at the table. Slaine was leaning forward, red faced, yelling. Inaho was sitting back, relaxed, gazing at Slaine with that nonchalant glance. 

“You don’t understand, Orange! Just because it is war, doesn’t mean we can do anything we want!”

“If we don’t do it, someone else will, Bat.”

“That doesn’t make it right!”

Inaho gave Slaine an intense look. “You wouldn’t do it to protect someone you love? If it was the only way to save them?”

That made Slaine stop in his tracks. Elbows still propped on the table in their defensive stance, his mouth hung open in unsaid argument.  
It seemed that was all the confirmation Inaho needed. He looked back down at his tablet. “You would easily do it for Seylum, despite all your arguments. Therefore, I am correct.”

Slaine was frozen. His eyes were wide as he kept his stare on Inaho. 

No. 

Not Princess Asseylum. 

Inaho. 

He would do it for Inaho. 

He would do all of those morally questionable things for Inaho. 

He would wage the war himself for Inaho. 

Inaho glanced back up, noting Slaine’s face. “What?”

Slaine tried to pretend he didn’t just have the worst revelation of his life. He shut his mouth and slumped back and crossed his arms. “Nothing. Shut up.”

“Your face is red,” Inaho said, with a small smile. Proving to Slaine once again that he wasn’t as emotionless as he appeared to be. That he enjoyed teasing Slaine. That there was a human someone inside Inaho. 

Slaine loved that smile. 

“Eggs,” Slaine muttered distastefully. 

“What?”

“That’s what would make you do those things. If there was a threat of an egg embargo, or all the chickens being killed, or something.”

Inaho looked at Slaine seriously. “And egg shortage would be a serious event. It would affect almost the entire population, not to mention-“

Slaine laughed. “Ok, ok. You’re right it would be very serious. Probably another whole war would start. Led by you. An egg revolution.” 

“I am not qualified to lead a-“

“Inaho!” 

But Inaho was smiling at Slaine, and Slaine internally groaned. 

He should have ran the moment he realized he was in love with Inaho. But he didn’t. Instead, he stayed and they talked and bickered and smiled for hours.

And even though Slaine realized he was, without a doubt, in love with Inaho, nothing felt any different. Inaho hadn’t done one thing to make Slaine fall in love with him. He had been falling for a long time. He had been in love for a long time. 

Which made it worse. 

There was a reason a lot of people kissed someone upon meeting them. They want to know right away whether or not someone is their soulmate.  
But Slaine didn’t meet that many people. And he didn’t want to just kiss everyone he met. He had always figured that he would know his soulmate anyway, without having to kiss them. 

And that was why the thought of kissing Inaho when they first met never even crossed Slaine’s mind. 

But now every thought he’s ever had about soulmates have been running through his head for the past week. 

He loves Inaho. So much. More than anything. More than he can ever love anything. He knows that. This week had only proven it further. 

But what if they aren’t soulmates? 

What if they aren’t really meant for each other?

And the thought that has plagued him for years: What if he doesn’t have a soulmate? 

Soulmates are two people that are supposed to be together. That are made for each other. Their souls are connected, unbreakable. 

And how could anyone ever love Slaine like that? 

Of course he wasn’t Inaho’s soulmate. 

But what if he was? 

Every time he saw Inaho smile, and felt the perfect contentedness of love, the hope grew bit by bit. 

-

They were both in Inaho’s room, like usual. Slaine was laying on the bed, reading a book, Inaho was sitting next to him, face illuminated by his tablet. 

This felt natural, both on Inaho’s bed, doing their own thing in comfortable silence, happy just to be in the presence of the other. 

“You’re going to go blind from that thing, Orange,” Slaine said lazily. 

“Maybe then you can beat me in a game of chess. Or in a fight. Or in-“

“Maybe then I could push you off a cliff,” Slaine said. 

“I love you, Bat,” Inaho said. 

Slaine gaped at Inaho with his perfect uniform, his perfectly tied tie, his stupid perfect hair. First of all, who relaxes in bed in a tie?! Second of all, how could his face still look so expressionless after saying something like that?! Third of all, why can’t Slaine say anything, with Inaho’s red eyes looking at him like that?!

Inaho looked at Slaine a moment longer, before he turned back to his tablet, seemingly unconcerned with Slaine’s lack of coherent thought. 

“I love you too!” Slaine blurted out, desperate to keep Inaho’s eyes on him. 

Inaho smiled and turned back to his tablet. 

Slaine gaped at him again. It’s been almost a year since he’s known the stupid idiot, and he shouldn’t have been surprised at anything Inaho does anymore. But somehow the idiot manages anyway. 

“What?! You’re not going to say anything else?!” Slaine demanded. 

“I just thought I should tell you, since you were obviously too slow to pick it up yourself.”

“What?! Are you calling me stupid?!”

Inaho shrugged. “Well, everyone else could tell.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” 

“I just did.”

Slaine could barely process what was happening. “You’re just going to tell me and then go back to that stupid thing?! He said, gesturing to the tablet. 

Inaho smirked. 

“You did it on purpose!” Slaine accused. “Ugh! You’re the worst!”

“Maybe. But you said you loved me.”

“I take it back!”

“You can’t take it back.”

Slaine smiled at Inaho. They both knew he wouldn’t, couldn’t, take it back. 

“Inaho,” Slaine said seriously. “We haven’t kissed…”

“You don’t need to tell me, Bat. I think I would have known if we kissed. Unless you did it when I was asleep.”

“You don’t sleep enough to give me the opportunity,” Slaine said lightly, turning to fully face Inaho on the bed. They both sat facing each other, legs folded beneath them. “…what if we’re not soulmates?” Slaine asked quietly. 

Inaho shrugged. 

“Inaho!”

Inaho smiled softly. “We can find out.”

Inaho slowly leaned forward, and Slaine’s heart began pounding in his ears. If they’re soulmates, when they have their first kiss, their last words to each other will appear on their wrists. It’s a bittersweet moment, when two soulmates find each other. Who wants to know what their last words to the other will be? 

There are those with obviously heartbreaking ones, like ‘I love you’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘don’t leave me’. There are also ones that seem so ordinary, which might make them even worse. ‘I’ll see you tonight’, ‘have a good day’, ‘don’t forget the eggs’. 

And knowing your last words, it won’t change anything. If you go your whole life, never buying eggs, those will still be your last words to your soulmate. Knowing does nothing but bring pain.

Slaine didn’t want to know what his last words to Inaho will be. He really, really didn’t. 

But he also really, really wanted to kiss the boy in front of him. He really, really wanted confirmation that the person he loved more than anything, loved with his whole being, was his soulmate. He needed to know that they were meant to be together. 

Inaho’s lips hovered right in front of Slaine’s. They were so close that Slaine could practically feel them. 

Inaho brought his hand up to touch Slaine’s cheek. “We don’t have to.” His thumb ran down Slaine’s face and lightly brushed his lips. 

“Stupid,” Slaine whispered, and their lips connected. 

Barely. They were barely touching. 

Inaho gently raised his hand to touch the nape of Slaine’s neck, and all restraint snapped. 

Inaho tugged at Slaine’s lips with his. Slaine wrapped his arms around Inaho’s waist, and they went tumbling down onto the bed. 

Hands softly moved everywhere, tracing lines of the bodies that they had only seen. 

Inaho’s mouth fit perfectly against Slaine’s, and their bodies aligned together. All his anxiety faded away, he never felt safer, more complete, than he did in that moment. Slaine never wanted it to stop. 

He pulled back. They both laid there, breathing hard, hearts thumping in sync. Slaine closed his eyes and rest his forehead against Inaho’s. He gripped Inaho as tightly as he could. He was afraid of what would happen when he opened his eyes. If he never opened them, he would never have to find out. They could just keep this moment forever. 

He just wanted, needed, a little more time. 

He kept his eyes closed, kept his mind focused on Inaho’s breathing, for as long as he could, it had to have been at least 20 minutes. But the anxiety was building again, and he couldn’t freeze time. 

He squeezed his eyes tight and then opened them, to see Inaho’s already looking back at him. 

By now, Slaine was trembling. He was shaking so badly in Inaho’s arms. Inaho had the same calm expression as always. 

Slaine unwrapped his arms from around Inaho’s back. Inaho’s eyes never left Slaine’s face. 

Slaine slowly brought his right wrist down to look at it. 

Nothing. There was nothing there. 

Panic began building. Slaine’s breaths were coming out in pants. He frantically looked at his other wrist. Nothing there either. 

Slaine bolted up, and grabbed both of Inaho’s hands. 

Both wrists were empty. 

By now the tears had started flowing. They weren’t body-wrenching sobs, just silent tears streaming down Slaine’s face. 

The man who cooked eggs religiously every morning, the man who couldn’t converse like a normal human being, the man who argued with Slaine, the man who listened with undivided attention to Slaine talk about his favorite topics, the man who seemed to have an answer to everything, the man who thought he was always right, the man who didn’t care what insulting thing he said, the man he just shared the perfect kiss with… the man Slaine loved. 

Was not his soul mate.

Despite all of Slaine’s doubts, all of his fears, deep down, he really thought that they were soulmates. And an hour ago, when Inaho told Slaine he loved him, when Inaho kissed him, for the first time all of Slaine’s worries and insecurities went away. With Inaho’s lips against his, there was no way in the world that they weren’t meant to be together. 

But all four wrists remained stubbornly blank. 

“Slaine.” Inaho sat in front of Slaine intertwined their fingers. 

Slaine ripped his hands away, hating the pale skin he glimpsed. “We’re not soulmates.”

“I don’t care.”

“What do you mean you don’t care?!”

“It doesn’t matter that nothing happened. It doesn’t change the fact that I love you.”

Slaine struggled to find words. “But I’m not your soulmate! There’s someone else out there… someone else is your soulmate.”

Inaho gave him a very condescending look. “No there’s not. There’s only you.”

“Inaho! I’m not-!”

“The universe doesn’t get to decide who I love. There is not even any logic behind the whole soulmates phenomenon. A person who we would effortlessly have a perfect relationship doesn’t exist. The concept of soulmates doesn’t matter, no matter who it is, there will be fights and hard times. So why does it matter who we choose to fight with? Why would we let it dictate what we do? It doesn’t decide my future.”

“Inaho…”

“And my future is you.”

Slaine looked at Inaho’s completely serious face. He had never heard someone so callously dismiss the notion of soulmates before. It is just understood that if someone isn’t your soulmate, you forget them and keep looking. 

But Inaho really didn’t care. 

And Slaine realized that he didn’t care either. 

If Inaho wasn’t his soulmate, then he didn’t want to meet them. He won’t stop loving Inaho just because the universe might have predesignated someone else for him.

Slaine would choose Inaho. Slaine would choose to wake up to red eyes, and disobedient brown hair. He would choose to make fun of Inaho’s egg obsession, he would choose to have in depth technical discussions about new technology, he would choose to argue over which movie to watch, and he would choose to endure fights and less-than-perfect moments with Inaho. 

He would choose Inaho.

Slaine buried his face in Inaho’s chest. He listened to the heartbeat that was not supposed to be his to hear, and felt the warmth that he was not supposed to share, and breathed in time with the breaths that were not supposed to be his to take. 

“I love you, Inaho.”

 

But they were not soulmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters of this are all meant to be read as one story. I separated them for effect, and so I could explain the particular AU for that chapter.


	2. The Lost Path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulmate AU in which when first seeing your soulmate, the other's name appears on your arm as a scar.

Slaine watched the boy with brown hair and blood dripping down his face struggle to pull himself across the floor to Princess Asseylum. 

Slaine cocked his gun. “Don’t,” he whispered, now standing directly behind the boy. “That is far enough. Do not touch her highness…Orange.”

Slaine had seen the orange kataphrakt posed over Count Saazbuam. He had seen the orange kataphrakt that betrayed him. The orange kataphrakt that shot him down and took Princess Asseylum. They had worked so well together, they had made a great team, Slaine had foolishly hoped then that they might continue to team up, protect Princess Asseylum together. 

But then he discovered that he had no allies. Orange shot him and left him for dead. More accurately, left him to be tortured. 

Slaine knew Orange didn’t know what awaited Slaine. But Slaine also knew that Orange wouldn’t have cared even if he did. 

Ever since then, Slaine had a fixation on Orange, the disembodied voice he had talked to.

The boy who was the cause of all of Slaine’s suffering. 

He stopped Slaine from rescuing Princess Asseylum. 

He handed Slaine back to Count Cruhteo.

He practically gave Slaine the scars on his back.

And now he got Princess Asseylum killed.

Slaine hated him. 

The boy in front of him turned his head to look at Slaine. 

Slaine objectively notes the blood on his face and hair, and the weird red eye. That was Orange? The boy who couldn’t be any older than Slaine?

Orange smiled. “Bat.”

Slaine decided that Orange must be a sociopath. Who smiles when they have a gun in their face, calling the attacker a ridiculous nickname, after shooting them down and getting them tortured? 

Orange turned his back to Slaine, and then fully faced Slaine a few seconds later, loaded gun of his own in his hands. 

Of course he wanted to finish the job of killing Slaine. 

Slaine didn’t hesitate to shoot a bullet straight through that deceptively normal face. 

He watched coolly as the body jerked backwards, and fell to the ground, blood pooling around the brown hair. 

He looked at the body of the boy who had ruined his life. 

He turned to walk away, when he began to feel something horrible. 

It was the most pleasant sensation on his arm. It was a burn but it didn’t burn. It was a cut that didn’t sting. 

Slaine knew exactly what was happening. Still, as he pulled back his sleeve, he considered different possibilities. 

Yet, there on his forearm were letters twisting and forming. 

They looked similar to scars, they were raised and skin colored. 

Horror formed in his stomach. His heart was pounding in his ears.

Slaine slowly knelt down next to the body, careful to avoid all the blood. He slowly rolled up the sleeve of the terran uniform. 

And there he saw similar marks twirling on Orange’s skin. Slaine could already make out the letters. 

He quickly dropped the arm, which hit the floor with a slap, and backed away. 

But he could still see the ‘o’ in ‘Slaine Troyard’ circle its way around the skin. 

His soulmate was lying dead on the ground. 

He had shot his soulmate in the head. 

Rage filled Slaine. He had been waiting to find his soulmate for years. He had been waiting for the one person who was guaranteed to love him. The one person who wouldn’t abandon him, or hurt him. The person who would be his best friend and lover. It was what had kept him going for so long, through all the abuse on Mars, through his father’s neglect and death. The fact that there was someone out there that was for Slaine was the flickering flame that kept him alive. 

He had been slightly upset that it wasn’t Princess Asseylum, after they became friends on Mars. But he had known from the day that he met her that she wasn’t for him, so it didn’t bother him too badly, he was more than content with her friendship and kindness. It just meant that there was someone even better than her out there for Slaine. Which had seemed impossible. 

He had waited for so long, dreamed for so long, to see a name scrawl itself across his forearm. 

It wasn’t fair. 

Slaine looks at the name on his arm in disgust. 

Inaho Kaizuka. 

“It’s fitting you should give me more scars, and continue to ruin my life, even after you’re dead, Orange.” 

-

Inaho kept a bandage wrapped around the name on his arm. Even though he was constantly wearing long sleeves, it was extra protection. 

It’s not that he was ashamed or anything. He could care less about the name on his arm. He just knew it was dangerous to display such a thing, especially considering whose name was on his arm. 

Yuki knew, of course. He couldn’t have kept it from her, not after all those months unconscious and in rehab. Naturally, a handful of doctors and nurses knew as well. However, the name probably meant nothing to them. It wasn’t uncommon to see a name scarred on someone’s arm. In fact, it would have been stranger if he didn’t have one. So they probably hadn’t even noted it down. 

But Yuki definitely had. 

That was a whole separate issue. 

Inaho didn’t care one bit that Slaine Troyard was supposedly his soulmate. He didn’t even care that Slaine Troyard had shot him in the head. 

The idea of soulmates held no appeal to Inaho. He had never had any interest in finding his soulmate, and just because a name had appeared on his arm, didn’t mean Inaho suddenly cared. 

He just wanted to end this war, rescue Seylum and her peaceful vision of the world that had taken root in Inaho’s mind, and to live. 

But even if Inaho didn’t particularly care, or plan to do anything about the name on his arm, Inaho couldn’t deny that he was curious about his ‘soulmate’. The little information that the internet held was not very satisfying. It was mostly about his scientist father. 

Considering Inaho (and most others) thought that there would never be a name on his arm, Slaine Troyard was very interesting. The interest was purely fueled by Inaho’s constant desire for new knowledge. How did the name’s work? Why did they appear? What kind of person was Slaine Troyard that he was Inaho’s soulmate?

-

It was with detached interest that Inaho muttered “I found you, Slaine Troyard” as he fired shots trying to destroy the other’s kataphrakt. 

Inaho was impressed with Bat’s ability to predict his shots. He already knew Bat was an excellent flyer, from their time together almost two years ago. But still, it was impressive.

It’s not that Inaho had really been looking for Slaine Troyard. The fact that he found him though, might give him more information about the concept that has floated through his mind a couple times in the last year.

As far as Inaho was concerned, he and Slaine Troyard were not soulmates.

-

Inaho spent subsequent hours analyzing the flight movements and tactics of Slaine Troyard. 

He twirled the pendant Seylum had kept, which he know realized belonged to Slaine. It was strange, having something precious of his soulmate’s without their knowledge. 

Inaho traced the designs, wondering what the pendant meant. “Slaine Troyard...”

-

Their next fight was just as interesting, and provided a little more insight into the character of Slaine Troyard. 

After watching him kill one of his own people, and give an emotional speech about the man (father?) he had just murdered, Inaho felt that he knew Slaine a bit better.

That is why, when Trident Base was attacked by a solo kataphrakt, Inaho immediately knew who it was. “You’d be able to sniff them out with careful cryptoanalysis and data sifting. Were probably dealing with someone capable of that.”

Inaho flipped the cover off of his fake eye, after inputting more data and analyzing it. “Slaine Troyard…”

-

Inaho drove Count Mazuurek, allowing him to escape, and he made sure to tell him to protect Seylum. But, he gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter as he clearly said, “There’s one other thing I would like you to do for me.”

Count Mazuurek looked at him in surprise.

“Find out what Slaine Troyard’s objective is.” He could almost feel the name pressing against his sleeve, where he had stopped wearing the extra protective wrap. He already was missing the weight of Slaine Troyard’s pendant, given to the count. 

-

Inaho gazed up at the dark sky. He had been up there fighting only a couple days ago. And now he was watching heat signatures dance across the sky with his eye. He quickly recognized the way one of them moved. 

What drew him out here in the first place? It’s not like he was one for star gazing. How come Slaine Troyard seemed to invade every aspect of his life?

“Inaho?” Inko appeared. “What are you looking at?”

“They’re fighting,” Inaho replied simply. 

“Huh?” Inko sounded genuinely confused. “Where?”

“Up there.”

She squinted at the sky, but there was no way she was going to be able to see anything other than twinkling stars. 

Inaho continued to watch the battle, even as the minutes dragged on. He found himself rooting for Slaine, despite everything. 

Inko sat down, Inaho didn’t move from where he was standing. 

Finally. “It’s over.”

Slaine had been victorious against the other martian he was battling. What was the reason behind the battle? Inaho might never know.

“You really do see everything, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Inaho replied, still looking at the sky. “But I can’t see what I really want to know.”

-

“I, Asseylum Vers Allusia, will take Count Slaine Saazbuam Troyard, as my husband.”

Inaho watched the fake princess’s speech for purely technical reasons. But still, he analyzed this statement, and finds that whoever she is, she is telling the truth.

It’s odd, that they would be allowed to wed without each other’s names on their arms. But perhaps because she is the princess, such rules did not apply. Or maybe his name isn’t on Slaine’s arm. 

The thought consumed much of his time, and he began researching the idea of one-sided soulmates. 

Findings inconclusive. 

-

Inaho munched on his sandwich, staring up at his orange kataphrakt. “Slaine Troyard…” he muttered, as was becoming habit. 

Yuki had appeared behind him sometime. She went off on a rant as usual, about Slaine. About how the name on his arm was obviously a mistake. The wedding only further confirmed that. 

Inaho felt a vague discomfort at the thought. 

-

Explosions rattled the earth. 

The flames buffeted against Inaho’s kataphrakt, pushing it backwards. 

“Multiple landing castle, multiple kataphrakts… He’s made his move.”

Inaho grips the controls tighter, preparing for a deadly battle. “It’s him. Slaine Troyard.”

-

“You’re obsessed with him!” Yuki would say sadly. 

Even Inko and Rayet began giving him pitying looks. He doesn’t wear anything on his forearm now, and doesn’t refrain from rolling his sleeves up, letting the scars show, no hint of shame. He wasn’t deaf to the whispers. He knew the whole ship was aware of who his soulmate was. 

He didn’t care. 

He didn’t care about the looks, or whispers. 

And he wasn’t obsessed. 

What made him mutter Slaine Troyard’s name more and more frequently was something else. 

Inaho felt like he was looking for something that he couldn’t see, that wasn’t even corporal. There was something there, something was supposed to be there, anyway. 

But Inaho couldn’t grasp it. It was like a puzzle. The most difficult puzzle he had ever tried to solve. There was no logic, or science, or math behind it. Even with the help of his eye, if might be impossible. 

It was a completely different thought process than how he usually solved problems. 

The thought that he might never find the answer bothered him more than it should have. 

So if he looked up at the sky for hours, running his fingers over the name on his arm, and occasionally muttering the name there, it wasn’t obsession.

If he studied the face giving charismatic speeches to Vers, studied to blond hair curling at the neck, the blue eyes that didn’t match the smile on his face, it wasn’t obsession. 

It was something else.

Inaho just didn’t know what.

-

It had always appeared as though Princess Asseylum was running the show on Mars. Most, who had not spent time with her, assumed it was so. 

But Inaho knew the princess that appeared on the screen was fake. 

Which means someone else was propagating all of this. 

Slaine Troyard. 

“Captain, I need to talk to you,” Inaho told her, after the meeting. 

She sighed. “I had a feeling you would. I need to talk to you too.”

They had both correctly deduced that an assassination team would be sent in to Moon Base as a two-front battle raged outside. 

Inaho insisted that he would go. To protect Seylum. She didn’t deserve to be killed for crimes not her doing. 

That was his objective. That was his reason. 

It was not to maybe come face to face with the man that haunted his thoughts. It was not because of Slaine Troyard. 

Inaho braced himself against the wall, as sharp, familiar, pain shot through his eye. He used it too much. 

But he had to continue his search for Seylum. 

He rounded the corner, insisting his eye do another scan for her, but the pain in his eye was suddenly accompanied by a pain in his arm. 

He had been shot. 

Inaho quickly ducked around the corner. 

“I didn’t expect to see you here, Inaho Kaizuka,” a voice called out. A voice Inaho knew well, from watching speeches over and over. A voice that he had never heard so clearly. 

“Slaine Troyard…” Inaho muttered, the name familiar in his mouth. 

Slaine Troyard had said his name. Slaine Troyard knew who he was. 

But that didn’t mean his name was present on Slaine Troyard’s arm. Of course the man would know who Inaho was. They had been opposing each other all this time. Slaine had shot him in the head. His eye ached. Keeping it closed was the only way to alleviate it enough to function.

The sound of more shots bouncing against metal snapped Inaho back to the present. 

Inaho and Slaine fired shot after shot at each other. It was obvious Slaine was aiming to kill. 

It was easy to pretend that Inaho’s lack of depth perception from squeezing one eye shut was what was throwing off Inaho’s aim. 

But Slaine’s shots were only getting more accurate. 

Inaho used his eye one more time, fighting through the pain. 

“Don’t get Seylum involved in this,” Inaho yelled, trying to throw Slaine off. 

“She is a mean to my ends,” Slaine Troyard said coldly. “If I exploit her, do you have a problem with that?”

Inaho thought about how different he sounded two years ago. Had he judged Slaine correctly back then? Or had he been wrong in his new analysis of thinking Slaine cared for the princess. Either way, Inaho was wrong at some crucial point in time. 

Inaho flew from behind the metal crate shielding him. “So you were an enemy all along!”

Then Slaine appeared, holding his gun out. “If that’s all you were, there would be no reason to hate you!” Slaine yelled with so much venom in his voice. 

A shock goes through Inaho, and he suddenly knew the name on Slaine’s arm was his own. 

They flew towards each other. Inaho ducked under, Slaine floated above, pistols aimed from both sides. 

It was the first real look Inaho got at his soulmate. It was the first time he could see how Slaine’s hair floated in the low gravity space, and how his eyes narrowed in concentration. And the gun pointed in his face. 

Inaho’s shot missed. 

Slaine’s shot missed. 

Inaho hit the piping system with accuracy that could have killed Slaine Troyard. 

Inaho flew off as smoke filled the room, effectively blinding Slaine. 

Slaine didn’t follow. 

Inaho didn’t know if he was relieved or disappointed. 

-

Inaho woke up from an indeterminate time asleep. The first thing he felt was the pain in his head, and the first thing he saw was Yuki. 

“Thank goodness!” She cried.

“He’s going to launch an all-out attack,” was the first thing he said. 

Inaho sat up in bed. 

“Don’t even think about it! Stay in bed!” Yuki said, trying to push him back down. 

“Sorry, Yuki. Something’s came up that I have to do.”

“Nao!”

He looked her straight in the eyes. “Please,” he said, not hiding the emotion in his voice. “Let me go.”

She looked at him sadly. "Why can't you let him go?"

-

Slaine’s speech was much more desperate and much less put together than usual. The man was cracking. 

Inaho watched with an unfamiliar feeling in his stomach, until Seylum’s face overtook Slaine’s and his broadcast was hijacked. 

-

Inaho fired his pivoting wires, and trapped Slaine’s Tharsis between them. “No matter how much you predict my attacks, there’s no point if you can’t escape.”

“You’re the one who can’t escape,” Slaine replies softly. 

Inaho had decrypted Slaine’s comm, and Slaine had let him. What that meant, Inaho didn’t know. The last time they had directly talked to each other like this was two years ago, and Inaho had shot Slaine out of the sky. 

Was that the biggest mistake he had ever made?

Inaho successfully defended against all of Slaine’s attacks. He had studied the man enough that he was predictable, even without using his eye. 

“I don’t think it will do any good,” Inaho said. “But I will ask anyway. Surrender, Slaine Troyard.”

“You came all this way to say such a pointless thing to me, Inaho Kaizuka?” 

They fell silent as Slaine attacked with everything he had. It was more uncontrolled, wild, than his usual fighting style. 

“I no longer have any need for a future!” Slaine yelled, as he hurled towards Inaho. The attack was aimed to destroy Inaho’s kataphrakt, along with Slaine’s. 

Inaho defended against it the only way he could, and the result sent the Tharsis flying downwards, heavily damaged. 

Inaho could hear the warning bleeping from Slaine’s kataphrakt. He also heard Slaine’s quiet laugh, as his broken kataphrakt continued to fall towards earth. Slaine was doing nothing to try and stop it. 

Inaho grasped Slaine’s kataphrakt’s hand with his, and pulled it close. They both spiraled downwards. “I’ll act as a drogue chute. It’ll stabilize you.”

“You intend to die with me? You’ll burn up.”

Slaine did not sound particularly troubled by the thought. 

“Kataphrakt frames are high density. They’ll work well enough as abrasive shielding.”

“Impossible. It can’t be done.”

“Really? Well I guess we’ll see.”

And the rest of the way down to earth with his soulmate was silent. 

-

Inaho watched Slaine drag himself from his destroyed kataphrakt. A familiar pendant dangled from Slaine’s neck. Inaho was glad it found where it belonged. 

Inaho walked over to Slaine, gun raised. 

Slaine looked up and smiled. A smile full of bitterness and hatred. The wind was whipping Slaine’s hair all around his face. 

They looked at each other for a moment.

Then Slaine raised his hand, smile still on his face, and pointed to his forehead, signaling where Inaho sound fire the gun. 

Inaho wondered what Slaine’s real smile looked like. 

-

Inaho studied Slaine for probably the millionth time. Except now it was in person, they weren’t fighting, and Slaine was wearing a light blue prison uniform. It matched his eyes and made his hair look even brighter. 

The pendant dangling around his neck also caught Inaho’s attention, but it was quickly drawn back to Slaine’s face. 

“Why can’t you leave me alone?!” Slaine shouted. “Why do you have to take everything from me?! Why do you continue to torture me?!”

“We’re soulmates,” Inaho said, and twisted his arm over, displaying Slaine’s name. 

Slaine began laughing. It was a horrible laugh. Inaho wondered what Slaine’s real laugh sounded like. 

Slaine turned his own arm over, and in the place where Inaho’s arm sported Slaine’s name, was a huge, angry, scar. It looked like it was from a burn. It looked like it hurt. 

“I hate you,” Slaine whispered. 

-

Inaho considered going back. Multiple times. Every day. He never did. He never saw Slaine Troyard again.

He could tell, even as bad as he was at reading people without his eye, that there was no point. 

They were soulmates. They were meant to be together. 

But somewhere along the way, that path was lost. Destroyed. There might have been a way, at one time, but it was long gone. And they could never go back. 

Inaho constantly wondered what might have been. Could have been. 

_I hate you._

Those were the last words Inaho Kaizuka would ever hear Slaine Troyard say.


	3. Double Blind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulmate AU where soulmates have matching shapes in their left eyes, and when those eyes meet, a bond is created where you can feel what the other is feeling.

Slaine’s soulmate was a constant thought in his mind. He wanted to find them more than anything. He dreamed about the moment that their left eyes would finally connect, and he would see the same shape swirling around in their eye as in his. There would be a snap, and the world would become clearer. They would immediately become attuned to the other’s feelings. 

Slaine wanted that more than anything. 

When he and his father had gone to Mars, he had hoped he might find his soulmate among the martians. He spent hours in the mirror studying the shape, hoping he would be able to spot his soulmate from even far away. 

The shape was never very distinct. A lot of people had easy things, like hearts or butterflies or knifes. 

Sometimes Slaine thought it looked like wings. Other times it may have looked like a gun. He could never decide. 

But his excitement to go to Mars quickly diminished, as his treatment continued to worsen. He knew without a doubt he would never find his soulmate here. Especially once his father died, and the abuse worsened. 

Princess Asseylum was his only friend. And no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t make his weird shape match her rose. 

Still, he never gave up hope. He knew one day he would have to find his soulmate. That’s whole point of the eye thing! He would find them one day, he just had to get through this part of his life, and once he found them, everything would be better. 

-

Yuki cared a lot more about his eye than Inaho did. 

There was no definite proof that the matching shapes meant soulmates. There was no definite proof that soulmates was even a real thing. 

And Inaho wasn’t going to trust something that had no proof. 

Still, Yuki would gush about it. “It looks like a bat, Nao! See those are the wings!”

Inaho would nod to appease her, but he didn’t really see anything in his eye. It was probably proof that Inaho didn’t have a soulmate, someone to match eyes with. It was probably proof that the whole concept was fake. 

They said that you knew the moment you looked into each other’s eyes, that a bond between your souls was created, and would never be without them again. 

It sounded fake. 

He really didn’t care either way. 

-

It was probably from all of Yuki’s yammering that the name ‘Bat’ had slipped out. The other person’s air carrier kind of did look like some sort of winged creature. But ‘Bat’ wouldn’t have entered his mind if just that morning Yuki hadn’t been saying ‘Oh, it’s such a cute bat! I hope you find them soon, Nao! There’s someone else out there with a bat!’ 

Inaho was used to tuning her out, but his mind obviously picked up on the hundred times she would say ‘bat’ a day. 

The nickname definitely isn’t because he had any notion that this pilot is his soulmate. The thought never even crossed his mind. 

They worked well together, made a good team. The pilot called him ‘orange’, Inaho called him ‘bat’. They defeated the martian kataphrakt. And Inaho promptly shot his plane down and left ‘bat’. 

-

“-Orange.” 

The nickname was all that got through Inaho’s damaged head. He stopped at the familiar voice. 

Looking over his shoulder, he saw a gun pointed at his face. He still couldn’t open his left eye, and could feel blood running into it. Inaho smiled grimly at the blonde hair, blue eyes, and young face that he saw with his right eye. “Bat.”

So his temporary ally had survived. And returned. Inaho never thought he would see Bat again after shooting his ship down, and had hardly given him a second thought. 

Well, he had never really seen Bat in the first place. His appearance was somewhat of a surprise. But from his brief conversation with Seylum, he had suspected that Bat was her terran friend she talked about. Which would explain why he seemed to be so close to Inaho’s age. 

It also means that Bat may have not been his enemy after all.

But it’s too late now. 

Inaho grabbed his gun and turned around, he saw Bat’s cold face with one eye before the gun fired and pain rippled through his head. 

-  
19 Months Later

Slaine fired his gun at Inaho Kaizuka again and again. None of his shots ever landed. He was beginning to suspect that he will never get another shot on the boy like the one that went through his head two years ago. 

Though, obviously even a direct shot to the head couldn’t kill Inaho Kaizuka. Slaine noted that Orange’s face wasn’t even marred, as they fired more and more shots at each other, and the two red eyes looked into his. 

Slaine grits his teeth. How is that even possible? He shot him directly through the head! This is the first time he has seen Orange since that day two years ago. But he recognized him immediately. The brown hair, the strange red eyes, the dead-looking face that perfectly matched the emotionless voice that Slaine had heard on multiple occasions. 

Slaine watched coldly as the boy that ruined his life filled the room with smoke and escaped. 

-

Slaine had long since given up on finding his soulmate. Ever since that day he shot Inaho Kaizuka and began a war of his own it had been pointless.  
He was a dead man walking. At one point, he might have hoped to have a future, to go back to a peaceful earth, find his soulmate, live a happy life. 

But not anymore. 

There was no happiness for him in this world. 

As he fell towards earth, kataphrakt mortally damaged by Inaho Kaizuka, a tear escaped his eye. He will never know what the shape in his eye is supposed to be (it’s looked more and more like a gun than wings lately). He would never meet his soulmate. He wondered if they were looking for him? If they wanted to meet him as badly as he had wanted to meet them. Will they care that they never met? That the world never clicked into place, seemed brighter? That they never got to feel that unexplainable bond when they looked into each other’s left eyes?

Slaine smiled bitterly as Inaho Kaizuka grabbed his kataphrakt and seemingly wanted to die with Slaine. 

-

It was the third time that Inaho had seen Slaine Troyard in person. And the only time Inaho could really look at him. His hair was longer, he had gathered that much from the speeches the man made. He looks older than he did two years ago. But that’s expected. 

He had never really known Slaine Troyard in the first place. But from their battle together two years ago, he seemed like a highly intelligent, highly skilled, highly emotional person. 

They all proved to be true, he guessed. But there was something different about the man calmly smiling and signaling Inaho to shoot him in the head. 

They had been enemies for so long. Slaine Troyard was the reason Inaho had this eye that was ever rapidly destroying his brain. 

There was something about him…

But their war was over, and he didn’t need to deal with Slaine Troyard anymore. 

-

Inaho Kaizuka was standing in front of him. Slaine thought he had finally been freed from that man. 

But no, here he was, looking as expressionless as Slaine would expect from the man that destroyed his life. 

Inaho was talking. Slaine didn’t really care what he had to say. But his eyes were drawn to the eye patch covering his left eye. 

When had that happened? He had both eyes when they crashed to earth, and given Slaine to Earth’s authorities. 

There’s the thought that it might have been from when Slaine shot him. Slaine got a rush of satisfaction from that thought, that he had actually managed to get some form of revenge on Inaho Kaizuka. 

Slaine’s life is over. But at least Inaho Kaizuka is missing an eye. It’s hardly fair, but it’s all Slaine’s got. 

Inaho must realize Slaine isn’t listening, because he turns to leave. “This will be our last time meeting.”

“Good.”

“Goodbye, Slaine Troyard.”

“Goodbye, Orange,” Slaine said venomously. Inaho left, and Slaine was struck with the sudden realization that he might have never seen Inaho’s real left eye.


	4. Situational

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulmate AU where your left eye sees the world in duller colors, until you meet your soulmate. Then the world becomes brighter and complete.

Slaine held his gun to the back of Orange’s head. “That is far enough. Do not touch her highness…Orange.”

The brown hair was caked with blood. And from the way he had dragged himself to Princess Asseylum’s body, Slaine was surprised the boy was still conscious. 

Slaine can’t believe that this the boy he fought alongside. He had to be a tactical genius, the way he took that kataphrakt down. Slaine wonders if they ever could have worked together, been teammates.

Orange smiled at Slaine over his shoulder, one eye squeezed shut and covered in blood. “Bat.”

Then the smile was gone and he turned to fully face Slaine, a gun of his own pointed at Slaine’s head. 

Suddenly the world in Slaine’s left eye went bright. So bright that he was momentarily blind in that eye. And when he can see again, the world was connected, unified, right. He no longer saw dull colors out of his left. The whole process had taken less than ten seconds, and yet Slaine felt so complete. 

Slaine immediately gasped and lowered his gun. 

The boy in front of him did not. 

He didn’t see it, Slaine realized. His left eye was shut, and probably hurt. He doesn’t know. 

He doesn’t know. 

“Stop!” Slaine yelled desperately, but Orange only lowered his gun after it had fired.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulmate AU where when you meet your soulmate, one eye changes color to match your soulmate's.

Slaine sat at the table in the visitation cell looking at Inaho Kaizuka. Why was he here? Why did he have to see him again?

Inaho Kaizuka gestured to his eyepatch. “This eye turned blue.”

Slaine gaped at him. He looked at Inaho’s red eye for the first time. It was devastatingly familiar. 

It took Slaine weeks to realize one blue eye had changed to red after Princess Asseylum was shot. He was recovering, taking care of her, kept under watch by Count Saazbuam. By the time he saw mismatched eyes looking back at him, he had no idea when it would have changed. 

He looked for red-blue combination of eyes everywhere. But he doesn’t even know who he saw in all the time. The doctors? The nurses? The soldier that died saving him? A maid?

All Slaine knew what that he had to find them. It was his second greatest mission, next to creating a better world for him and his soulmate to live in.

He had come face to face with Inaho Kaizuka twice since his eye changed. And though the red had seemed familiar, Inaho had two of them. It wasn’t the mismatch of blue and red that would signify that they were soulmates. 

“What?” Slaine whispered. 

“The doctors told me when they operated on it, that the eye was blue. I had an advanced prototype put in when they couldn’t save it. I chose for it to match my other eye.”

Slaine looked at the man in horror. His enemy was his soulmate? He had been fighting against his soulmate this whole time? He had tried to kill his soulmate. He had shot his soulmate in the eye, removing any chance of them finding each other. 

The missing piece Slaine had been looking for all this time was standing right in front of him. 

If he hadn’t shot him in the head…

He could have found him…

“You knew,” Slaine accused. How could he know and do nothing? How could he know and continue doing what he did?

Inaho shrugged. “I don’t believe in the concept.”

His soulmate. Slaine had finally found his soulmate. His soulmate was here. And he’s saying that… did this man come back just to torture him further?

“Why did you come here?”

“I thought you should know.”

“We’re soulmates,” Slaine said desperately, a tear slipping down his face.

“That doesn’t mean anything to me,” Inaho said, and turned to walk out of the room.

“Wait…” Slaine choked out. But Inaho was gone.


	6. Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the epilogue to the first chapter, where soulmate's last words appear when they have their first kiss.

Slaine absentmindedly traced tiny circles on Inaho’s arm. They were both lying in bed. Inaho hadSlain his tablet close to his face like always. Slaine resisted the urge to say something about the bad practice. 

He was scrolling through his phone with his hand that wasn’t touching Inaho. 

“What do you want to do tomorrow, Bat?” Inaho asked him. 

Slaine smiled. They can do whatever they want. The war has officially ended. Inaho was celebrated as a war hero, of course. Slaine’s going to have to make sure it doesn’t go to the idiot’s head. 

“Well, there’s a mountain near here that we can hike.”

Inaho looked less than thrilled at the idea. Either due to the fact that he will have to partake in physical exercise in the fresh air or that there is no internet on the top of a mountain. 

Slaine laughed. “It’s vacation, Inaho!”

“I’m afraid of heights.”

“You piloted a kataphrakt in space!”

Inaho smiled and grabbed Slaine’s roaming hand. “I can’t wait to climb your mountain.”

“It’s not my mountain, it’s actually a-”

Inaho planted a kiss on Slaine’s lips to shut him up. Slaine smiled at the reversal of their usual roles. Typically it’s him who has to shut Inaho up. 

Inaho continued to place sloppy kisses on Slaine’s cheek and neck. 

“Inaho!” Slaine said with laughter in his voice. 

“We” – kiss - “don’t have” – kiss – “words on our arms-“

Slaine jerked away from Inaho’s mouth. He had long since accepted that Inaho wasn’t his soulmate. He loved Inaho with everything he had, and some stupid words weren’t going to change that. Inaho was his home, where he was meant to be. 

But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a sore topic for Slaine. He lived with the constant knowledge that the man he was going to spend the rest of his life with, wasn’t his soulmate. That he wasn’t Inaho’s. 

It hurt. It would always hurt. 

Inaho looked at Slaine seriously. “I was going to say that we don’t have words on our arms because they are supposed to be our last words to each other.”

Slaine rolled his eyes. “Yes I know that, Orange.”

“What I mean is, we will never have any last words for each other.”

Slaine laughed. “Sure.”

Inaho displayed his tablet for Slaine to see. Parallel universes. Multiverse theory. “There could be multiple worlds, alternate universes. And if there are, I believe I would find you in all of them. You’re part of me, Slaine. There is no world where we didn’t meet, which means we will always continue to be together. We will never have any last words, because there will always be another universe for us.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

Inaho shrugged. “Maybe not. But neither does the idea of soulmates. Neither does how much I love you. I believe that you are my soulmate.”

When they had first discovered that they were not soulmates, Slaine pictured them like two puzzle pieces. They may look like they fit together, but they aren’t really meant to be. And by being with Inaho, he was smashing the pieces together, bending them and forcing them to fit when it was obvious they didn’t. 

But that wasn’t the case. They weren’t mashed and forced together at all. They fit like they were made for each other. 

Slaine didn’t know if Inaho’s theory was correct. Even Inaho didn’t know if it was correct. But even the crazy idea of alternate universes made more sense than the idea that he and Inaho weren’t soulmates. 

Slaine kissed the tip of Inaho’s nose. “I would find you in all of them, Orange. And we would be as happy as we are now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This definitely wasn't meant to be this long, or this sad. It was an idea I had and it just kept growing. 
> 
> I could honestly write a huge story around each AU, but I don't have the time (or a strong enough heart to handle the pain). 
> 
> So each chapter was supposed to contain Inaho's and Slaine's last words to each other for that universe. I mainly worked with the times that Slaine and Inaho actually came face to face with each other. But for chapter two, I went through almost every time they interacted, or Inaho muttered Slaine's name to himself, or talked about Slaine (he was totally obsessed). 
> 
> A lot focus on AU's dealing with eyes, because I liked (hated?) the idea of them destroying their chances of finding each other because Slaine shot Inaho's eye. So I hope all the AU's made sense!
> 
> Again, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! :)


End file.
